Wee Wooly Rabbit

Don't be afraid to be different

Little Bear

Whooo Meee?

"Little Golden Books" Kitty

Ellie & Friends ~ Vintage Pattern

Lucky Irish Rabbit

Nap Time Mouse

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Just one last friendly reminder that if you want to keep following my blog and art updates that you can go and sign up for Bloglovin or some other blog reader as

Google Reader is shutting down tomorrow July 1st

I have installed my Follow me on Bloglovin button on the upper left of this screen...click it and you will be directed to their site. It is super easy to sign up just follow their instructions then you can import all your favorite blogs to their reader.

My blog is not just about my artwork, nor is it always going to be about the good stuff, the cute little puppy stuff, the wee fuzzy stuff...it's about all the things that make up my life...the good, the bad, the ugly and the funny...I appreciate everyone of you, your opinions, your comments, your presence in my life!

Be happy and have a great summer...

On another note My hubby and myself are almost finished laying the wood floors in my studio...today I am painting moldings and I am soooo excited to get in there and start working again.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

It really sickened me as well that they had to kill this
cougar...they are amazing creatures...but before you pass judgement on
the our local wildlife people you have to be made aware of the whole
picture. (((I did more research this morning and found out that this particular cougar was quite young and in poor condition))) We live in a place that is literally teeming with wildlife and
we have a huge local deer population that roams around our residential
areas...our homes are their homes and because of this we also get a
large influx of predators who find these deer easy pickings. So these
predators make a habit of coming back to our residential areas even if
they have been relocated...they also make a habit of preying on our pets
as well...I hear horror stories every other month about pets being
taken by eagles, bears, coyotes and cougars. So our wildlife people felt
that this cougar was habituated to people and was a real and dangerous threat...it was making its home
in our residential area so rather then wait till it attacked a human
they thought it best to euthanize it.

As for our bear encounter...I grew up around bears and am very bear aware and I never take chances
around them...I know what to do when I see one and how to behave...I
know where to draw the line and so does my brother...we made sure that
we played it safe and we withdrew from our encounter in good time
leaving the momma bear and her cub feeling comfortable in regards to our
presence.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

I went to go visit my brother in Vancouver a while back...we decided to go hiking in Minnekada Park, the park where my husband got down on his knee and proposed to me. The proposal took place on a rocky bluff overlooking the beautiful marshy lake pictured above.

Many years ago I lived in Vancouver and I use to go hiking in this park every other day...I felt so at home there and not once in all those years did I have a direct bear encounter...never say never!

We got to the park and I had to wait (as usual) for my Brother Jeff to unload his Camera gear...(My brother can't go anywhere without his Camera and his very large and heavy pack full of multiple lens etc. etc. We start down the trail and as soon as we round the corner we run into a mother Black Bear and her cub...she turned around when she spied us and started walking the other way..."Oh good" we say...we can keep going"...so we did. Then she turned around again and started heading back our way..."Oh poo" we said...we turned around and started going back the way we came. This went on for a few minutes...meanwhile my brother is sweating buckets from wildlife photo fever...he is soooo excited to get a chance to take some pics of these two (He's a city slicker and not used to seeing these critters).

I am unwittingly relegated to camera assistant, being told to hand him this and that lens for this and that type of shot. Meanwhile mama bear is getting closer and closer and I am starting to pee my pants. Jefferson I say...it is time to high tail it outta here..."one more shot", he says...I looked at him and then back at the bears and I promptly turned around and ran down the trail...calling Jeff's name plus a few other colorful words I can't repeat here. Finally my big brother comes huffing and puffing down the trail sweating buckets and saying that was freaking awesome...that was freaking awesome!

So we decide to go down another trail when we run into some folks who say there is a big black bear down that there as well. This pretty much puts an end to my plan of visiting the bluff where my husband proposed to me...we are now to spooked to carry on so we head back to the car and out of the park.

We are just driving out of the park entrance when we see some park wardens blocking the road...just beyond we see a bird on the roadway playing the part of an injured bird. It is limping and acting like it has been injured. We can't go any further and I look over at Jeff who again has that glazed look of wildlife photo fever. I relent so we step out of the car to see what the commotion is. Lucky for us we get an up close and personal glimpse of a couple of rare Sandhill Cranes. The bird on the roadway was acting injured as a way to draw our attention away from it's nest. These are birds most folks will may never get to see in their lifetime so we felt quite privileged to witness their interesting behavior, bird calls and nesting activities. Even though we couldn't get that close Jeff was in his glory and still managed to get a few shots.

We both had a great week-end together and I know Jeff will treasure these wildlife encounter's.

Meanwhile within a few days of getting back home to Gibsons we got a knock on our door from a neighbor who says that a cougar has just killed a deer in the yard adjacent to ours. Oh Joy...NOT! I look at little Jasper and say to him...your grounded for awhile. Our yard is fenced but that is definitely not a barrier to a cougar. We then heard that the police were called to come see what could be done...remove the deer, relocate the cougar?

Within a few minutes of getting to the site of the deer kill the police got a call about a bear that had entered the kitchen of a women who lives down the road from us...mercy me...what is going on in these here parts! We never did hear what happened to that bear but I do know that the next day the cougar killed another deer and so it was deemed dangerous and had to be humanely euthanized.I hate sad endings like this...human safety was put first as this big cat seemed to have no fear of humans and was deemed to dangerous to let live.

I truly love living here on such a wild coast...being surrounded by rain forest and wildlife is truly a privilege...but with this privilege comes responsibility to respect this land and its inhabitants...drama is never far away and sometimes it can land right on your doorstep!

P.S. My brother took the first five photos in this post and the rest were gleaned from Google images.

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Susan Pilotto is a mixed-media artist who specializes in creating one of a kind miniature animals from recycled wool felt fabric. Susan graduated from Vancouver's Capilano College with a Diploma in Studio Art.